


Unwritten

by leigh_adams



Series: A Night at the Movies [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Community: dg_ldws, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-28 10:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/306684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leigh_adams/pseuds/leigh_adams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He could see them at night, the faces of his victims. They haunted him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unwritten

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for Round Five of Draco/Ginny LDWS.

It was amazing how _off_ movie battles really were.

In a movie — _Gladiator_ , for example—there would be elegant, sweeping shots of the battlefield. The clash of swords and the whistle of spears would sound against the sweeping score by Hans Zimmer. On screen, battles were seen as a work of art, and death as poetry.

Draco knew that that was _far_ from the truth.

He'd seen death up close before, had come perilously close to dying himself. Battles weren't beautiful; they were unrefined and ugly, with a sense of hysteria that mounted as the curses flew. Draco had been neither the hero nor the true villain, but that didn't matter. He was a survivor.

The films never showed the aftermath, either. Everyone assumed that, after the battle was won and the hero had kissed the leading lady, they all lived happily ever after.

In reality, the nightmares never stopped. There were times when Draco would awaken in the middle of the night, gasping for breath as the faces of his victims – Madame Rosmerta, Katie Bell, Ron Weasley, to name a few—paraded in front of his eyes.

The look on Professor Burbage's face when the Dark Lord had cast the killing blow.

How her eyes pleaded with Professor Snape for mercy.

Even though he wasn't the hero, Draco had his own leading lady to hold him tight, to kiss away the pain. Ginny knew what it was like to face the dead in her dreams, to feel phantom pains from scars—and in his case, a tattoo.

She was just as haunted as he.

Draco didn't deserve a happily ever after, and maybe that wasn't how his story was destined to end. But he had Ginny, and that was enough.

His story was still being written, after all.


End file.
